What a Bill Belichick defense will look like for UNC football

Players on the North Carolina football team are still getting used to practicing under Bill Belichick.

During spring practice, there was a lot of conditioning. A lot of running. All to the point that the players who joined the first-year UNC head coach at ACC Kickoff in Charlotte last week felt like they were training to be a cross country team, instead.

But with the improved regimen comes the team’s hope that the defense will improve from years prior.

“We are fast,” defensive back Thaddeus Dixon said. “We could go all day. I feel like the way we conditioned as a team, we’ve suffered more than any team we’re gonna play. We’ve ran more, conditioned harder than any team we’re gonna play. Knowing that, taking that onto the battlefield, having that in your back pocket, knowing you work harder than everybody. It’s gonna be special as a defense.”

Although Belichick kept his expectations for the season tight-lipped on Thursday, Dixon and fellow defensive back Will Hardy shared a glimpse of what can be expected for this season’s unit.

UNC defense needs improvement

The UNC defense infamously has been lackluster in recent memory, ranking in the bottom half of the ACC in total defense for the last four seasons. Three different defensive coordinators over the course of five years under head coach Mack Brown — co-coordinators Jay Bateman and Tommy Thigpen until 2021, Gene Chizik through 2023 and Geoff Collins for a single season — were not enough to end the team’s woes.

In 2024, Carolina’s defensive struggles resulted in a record-setting 70 points for James Madison in September, a last-minute, game-winning touchdown for Georgia Tech in October and another final-minute collapse against N.C. State to end Brown’s career in Chapel Hill. Last season, the Tar Heels ranked second-to-last in the conference in red zone defense and 10th in total defense.

Enter Belichick, famous for his top-tier defenses in the NFL, and with him, his son Steve, who followed his father to Carolina from Washington.

During Dixon’s two seasons at Washington, he played under Steve Belichick in 2024, but also witnessed what the Huskies looked like before the younger Belichick’s arrival.

“My first year at Washington in 2023 we were 122nd pass-ranked defense,” Dixon said. “Last year, we finished top-10 as a passing defense and top-30 overall. [Steve Belichick] didn’t recruit those players. He came in and did the best with what he had, and we moved up 90 spots. It’s stuff like that that just goes to show him as a coach outside of his dad and everything else. Coach Steve is one of the best in the game.”

NFL coach touts cross country training

But to execute his vision for defense, Bill Belichick brought along Moses Cabrera, a former New England Patriots strength and conditioning coach to lead the program as the head performance coach. And so began the cross country style of training.

The Tar Heels gathered on Wednesdays to complete a long distance run every week. Nicknamed “bouts,” the players run back-and-forth across the field for 800 yards, hitting the lines and running back, until a break. Usually, there is a distance goal to hit in three minutes before the one-minute rest, so the players are running as fast as they can. According to Hardy, that pace has equated to running two miles in ten minutes.

“You’re moving pretty fast, and a lot of us aren’t cross country runners, who didn’t grow up doing that,” he said.

The workouts had South Alabama transfer quarterback Gio Lopez claiming to be in the best shape of his life, but it’s also served as a form of team bonding. And with over 70 new players added to the roster — at least 40 transfers and 30 freshmen — communication and connection on the field is a priority heading into fall camp at the beginning of August.

“This is the fastest I’ve ever been, and I can say that truthfully,” Dixon said. “I’ve been clocking 22 miles an hour on GPS every week. We work hard and we run even harder.”

On the schematic side, Hardy — who is entering his fourth year with the Tar Heels — said there are some similarities to prior seasons, but the emphasis on freedom at his position at safety has been a welcomed change.

“I loved doing that this spring,” he said. “Being able to go back there and make adjustments, be flexible, have more freedom, I think it’s going to lead to a lot more success this year.”

Extra attention has followed Carolina since Belichick’s arrival. Mass gatherings of media members stood in the hallway as the UNC head coach walked into the press conference room in Charlotte and flooded the breakout room to hear him speak afterward.

Yet even with the increased number of eyes, the type of team — and defense — that takes the field against TCU in September still remains a slight mystery.

The players could only make one promise:

“It’s gonna be a special defense,” Dixon said. “We’re gonna be flying around, making a lot of plays on the ball. It’s gonna be a different type of swagger coming to Chapel Hill this year.”

Would you be interested in signing up for one of these free N&O sports email newsletters? Let us know here.

This story was originally published July 28, 2025 at 1:53 PM with the headline "What a Bill Belichick defense will look like for UNC football."